


Vextho

by Anonymous



Series: Welcome To VexCraft! [1]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Magic, Vex Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:28:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25166212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Etho finds a vex mask amongst Scar's belongings and puts it on.
Series: Welcome To VexCraft! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843546
Comments: 8
Kudos: 96
Collections: Anonymous





	Vextho

**Author's Note:**

> "Be the change you want to see in the world." - a friend when I lamented about the lack of vex!etho stories.
> 
> This will satisfy neither yours nor my vex!etho needs :(
> 
> You'd think that after watching Etho for 7 years I'd know how to characterize him better - no. This is my first time writing Etho and is _the_ Etho characterisation exercise for myself. Sorry for the mess.

Green Team finally had their long-awaited meeting in the Town Hall, a celebration after Scar was elected mayor of the shopping district.

They huddled in Scar's office and Etho passed around the basket of freshly baked cookies he had promised to bring. He had plucked the cocoa beans from the jungle himself that morning, picked the wheat from his wheat farm, and mixed the ingredients together 'with love', as one might describe heartfelt baking.

"Great cookies, Etho!" Impulse exclaimed, leaning back from the circle they had formed on the floor to raise his cookie at Etho. Etho turned from where he was standing in front of Scar's desk, personally handing the mayor a cookie.

"Thanks," Etho grinned, the crinkles at the corners of his eyes being the only way the other hermits could tell that he was smiling beneath the mask. "I tasted each one of them to make sure that they were good before handing them out."

The circle of hermits groaned and Impulse lowered his cookie to examine it. Sometimes they couldn't tell if Etho was joking, though from the twinkle in his eye and the following chuckle he let out, they were mostly certain he was joking this time.

"Here, Bdubs," Scar broke off a quarter of his cookie and leaned back in his chair, reaching out to the corner of the room where Bdubs had been assigned to stand. "Have a cookie."

"Oh wow," Bdubs received the piece of his cookie with greatly exaggerated gratitude that made Scar giggle. "Thanks, Scar."

The basket was quickly emptied - Etho eventually passed Bdubs his own cookie - and the celebratory meeting was adjourned. Some Green Team members stayed back to talk to Scar about the shopping district, having Green Team priority, but eventually only Etho, Scar and Bdubs were left in the office.

"I'll clean up the cookie crumbs, no worries," Etho offered.

"We could make Bdubs do it," Scar grinned, nudging his chief of staff.

"Oh _of course_ ," Bdubs drawled, making Scar laugh again. Scar gave Bdubs a lighthearted punch on the arm and picked up his rockets, leaving the room.

"Thanks, Etho!" Scar smiled over his shoulder and rocketed out of the second floor balcony.

Bdubs turned to leave, but not before passing the friendly punch to Etho with significantly more strength in it. Etho, leaning against Scar's desk, grunted with the impact he wasn't expecting and stumbled slightly.

Etho recovered and reached for Bdubs, but Bdubs dodged and burst into laughter as he rocketed out of the room, deftly swerving out of the second floor balcony as well.

Etho chuckled to himself. That BdoubleO. He'd get him back some other way. Didn't Bdubs recently build an entire cliff front? Maybe he could put something behind the cliff…

But that was a job for another day. Right now, he was to clean up the office and get back to his base. Etho swept the cookie crumbs off the floor and wiped Scar's desk with a handy piece of cloth. He gathered the crumbs at the edge of the desk and whisked them into his basket, intending to dump the waste into lava back at his base.

Snappers, some of the crumbs were falling into Scar's drawer jutting out below the edge of his desk. Etho opened it and began taking items out of the drawer, reaching beneath for the fallen crumbs. He wasn't particularly looking at what Scar had kept in his desk, though the names of the items he picked up momentarily flashed through his mind.

Jellie snacks, golden carrots, a spare elytra, a few diamonds, the book Scar had been writing Green Team suggestions in, a handful of Vote for Scar posters, a vex mask…

The last item tingled in Etho's hand, drawing his attention to it. Etho looked at the vex mask in his hand before lowering it to the desk slowly.

He remembered some of the vexian antics on the nHo in Season 5. It had been a while ago, but the memory of Jurassic Park came back to him in foggy pieces. Scar hadn't done anything with the vexes this season, as far as he knew, and neither had Cub. Were the convexes planning something big? Was that why Scar had a handy vex mask hidden in his mayor desk? Had winning the election just been a step towards vexian domination on the server?

Etho smiled to himself at the thought of that. It wouldn't surprise him if Scar and Cub were indeed planning something big for the server. A builder and a redstoner joining forces was a recipe for disaster, at least for the rest of them. Cub could bring Scar's builds to life, and Scar could disguise Cub's contraptions, hiding them in plain sight.

Etho couldn't wait to see what they would come up with.

He placed the vex mask down on the table among other things and continued picking the crumbs out of Scar's drawer, though his thoughts lingered on the convexes and their vex magic.

He hadn't seen Cub doing redstone while he was under the influence of the vexes, but Etho wondered if vex magic affected redstone abilities. Maybe not _what_ Cub could design, since that came from Cub himself, but what _more_ vex magic could do _for_ the redstone designs that Cub could create.

Would the redstone pulse last longer? Would the explosions be larger? Would the circuitry require an 'on' button, or would magic be able to power the circuitry in itself?

What about if there was redstone in players? Cub didn't have redstone in him, but many other redstoners on Hermitcraft did - for example, Etho himself. Hypothetically, if he were to be under vex magic, how would it affect the redstone in _him_?

**We're wondering the same thing too.**

Etho's eyes darted to the door. No one stood there; no one had spoken the lines he had heard whispered past his ear.

Strange. He must be tired. Etho dumped Scar's belongings back into the drawer and picked up his basket, throwing the handful of crumbs into it. Cradling the basket in one hand, Etho pulled out his rockets with his other and rocketed out of the balcony, heading home.

It wasn't until Etho had reached his base and put his basket down on a table that he realised he had mistakenly thrown Scar's vex mask into the basket as well, instead of back into the drawer.

He picked the mask up. The tingly feeling against his fingers were comparable to that of picking up an item containing static electricity. Instead of fading away, the sparks of magic traveled down his fingers, tickling his palm, wrapping around his wrist -

Etho dropped the mask and shook the magic out of his hand.

That had felt really strange, and yet, the moment magic was gone, Etho found himself yearning for the tingling feeling of it again.

Magic was addictive; that was a fact he was aware of. Scar and Cub hadn't done anything with vex magic this season, but each of them had found alternative sources of magic to replace it. Magic was comparably as addictive as redstone; **just a taste of it** and they couldn't stop working on their machines until it was functioning properly.

It was part of a redstoner's nature to be curious and always ask questions. If they did this, what could happen? How could they make it more efficient? How could they increase the output? How could **vex magic** enhance the **power** of his circuitry?

**Why don't you experiment and find out?**

Good question. Experimenting was a redstone process Etho enjoyed immensely.

Before he could wrap his mind properly around his own thoughts, Etho had picked up the mask again.

There it was, the sparks of vex magic against his fingers, the tingle down his palm, the way it wrapped around his wrist lightly. Etho didn't fight, didn't retaliate against it: _why wasn't he fighting against it?_ a part of him considered, but that thought was quickly dismissed.

He was curious to see what would happen, that was all. Curiosity was natural. If he didn't experiment, he wouldn't learn, and didn't he want to find out **what would happen if vex magic was allowed access into his internal redstone circuitry?**

Yes, he did.

A high-pitched giggle breezed past in a sudden gust of wind, and the vex magic lingering around his wrist found its way beneath his skin and into his veins.

Etho gasped at the sudden chill that travelled through his veins, up his arm and into his heart. It made him stumble back into a wall, raise his free hand and press it against his chest, clutching the front of his vest in a reactive attempt to bring warmth back to his heart.

The sudden initial chill had struck his heart painfully, but the cold quickly gave way to numbness. His heart continued to beat, the chill seeping into various other veins as it followed his bloodstream across his body. Etho rested his head back against the wall, closing his eyes, taking a moment to even out his breathing again after his initial panic.

The chill made its way down his legs and into his toes, tingling as it rested at the end of the path. It crept up his neck and dispersed through the many branches of veins up his mind until he could no longer feel it. It weaved its way into his other arm and Etho lowered the hand against his chest back down to his side.

His fingers felt weak and limp by his sides in the aftermath of the chill, but something kept his fingertips pressed tightly against the cold surface of the mask.

It hadn't been cold to the touch before. Etho opened his eyes and glanced down at the mask in his hand.

It was glowing now. It hadn't been glowing before, had it?

It was glowing with **power** , Etho realised, power that he had let a little bit of seep into himself. Power that now flowed through his veins, inactive, waiting for him to **activate** it. Almost like redstone. He could understand the flow of magic as though it was redstone. Veins were just part of a body's circuitry.

He would know. The circuits wiring his redstone eye had been carefully connected to one of his natural veins. His redstone eye was kept activated by the electrolytes in his bloodstream, the body's natural electrical energy. Hadn't vex magic felt like static electricity against his fingers? Would its electrical power be compatible with his redstone eye?

**Wear the mask and find out.**

It sounded like a command now; no longer a suggestion.

And yet, as much as Etho hated being bossed around, he obeyed the voice and slipped Scar's vex mask over his own face.

**It's not Scar's mask anymore.**

Vex magic was definitely compatible with his body's natural electricity. He felt so _strong_ , ready to take on the world. He had so much _energy_ , he could work on his redstone contraptions all through the night and throughout the next day. He felt so _powerful_ , the redstone circuitry in him running on high levels of power he had never been able to reach. If he turned towards the wall, he would be able to see his glowing redstone eye reflecting back.

It was true, then. Vex magic did enhance the reach of redstone. It could activate redstone. It could power **him**.

He was a high-functioning machine with unlimited power.

**This is your mask now, Etho.**

**Etho.**

_Etho._

"Etho," someone whispered, shaking his arm lightly.

"Hmm?" Etho hummed a sleepy response and looked up blearily at who it was.

"Etho," Scar repeated, his eyes wide and his voice soft in concern. "Are you okay?"

Etho pushed himself off Scar's mayor desk, where he must have fallen asleep with his head resting against his arms. His arms tingled with pins and needles, though something nagged at the back of his mind that there was something more to the tingly feeling in his veins.

"Yeah," Etho raised his hands to his face, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. There was a pang of disappointment that hit him, an expectation of touching something that was cold before his eyes, a longing for something that he couldn't quite remember.

"Sorry," Etho continued, "I must have fallen asleep here yesterday."

"Don't worry about it," Scar patted his back encouragingly. "You must have been exhausted after the meeting."

"I guess so," Etho said. Snippets of yelling from outside had him glancing at the door before looking up at Scar. "What's going on outside? Mayoral duties to attend to already?"

"Not really," Scar suddenly seemed uncomfortable. Etho moved out of his way as Scar came around the table, opening his desk drawer and rummaging through it. "Vex business."

"Ah, the convexes are back to their old tricks again?" Etho smiled.

"Well," Scar peered into the drawer as he continued, "at least someone with vex abilities is back. Um, Grumbot's alive. As far as we can tell, someone has infused strong vex magic with very complicated redstone circuitry to bring it sentience. The other hermits are distracting it; we're trying to disable it before it tramples the shopping district. Where's my mask?"

Scar closed the drawer and looked under the table, then huffed and stood up. "Never mind. I'm sure Cub will be able to find his." Scar moved towards the door, then paused and looked back at Etho. "Do you want to look at it? We could use some redstone help."

"Sure," Etho nodded and followed Scar down the stairs.

Scar rocketed out of the town hall but Etho stopped at the entrance, looking up at the shadow that loomed over the shopping district. Grumbot swiped its arms at the hermits that flew around it, distracting it from approaching land. Scar joined them, and Etho heard him yell something intelligible before Cub rose up from presumably the ground and both of them went around Grumbot towards the back of it.

Etho looked away from Grumbot, back at the diamond throne behind him, before his gaze fell on the light blue glazed terracotta beneath his feet.

 **Vex magic** , something whispered to him.

His feet tingled.

Etho looked up at Grumbot again and felt a strange sense of approval. High-pitched laughter faded away in the wind.

**They'll be able to deactivate it… eventually.**

Etho tried to hold on to that strange thought that popped into his mind but it dissipated away, leaving behind only an unspoken promise of more to come.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> This may be anonymously posted but I still receive comments in my inbox, so please do let me know what you thought! Any criticism on characterization would be greatly appreciated.


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